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Recently I moved into a townhouse and I received my first water and garbage Utilities bill in the mail. In the past, I used to rent an apartment and I never had to worry about the water or garbage collection bills. I know I could go to a bank and make my payment there but I want to be able to pay my Utilities bills in the comfort of my home. Why should I need to line up in the bank just to make a payment.

Does anyone know if the water and garbage collection bills comes every month? Will I be able to sign up for an online bill instead of a physical mail bill? I am lazy when it comes to having to file for the paid bills. I usually like to receive electronic bills, pay it off and forget about having to store or file the bills.

2 Answers

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In Toronto, Ontario, If you use less than 6,000 cubic metres or 6 million of litres of water per year, then you will be billed every four months or three times a year. But if you use more than 6,000 cubic metres or 6 million of litres of water per year then you will be billed monthly. Usually most residential people falls on the first category and so most people are billed every four months or three times a year. The garbage and waste collection cycle coincides with the water billing as well and appears on the same sheet of billing. Very often, you get a discount of about $15 or $20 if you pay your bills on time or before the required date.

In order to lookup your Utility account for your water and garbage waste collection details, you can enter your information here at "Toronto Water Utility and Garbage Waste Collection Lookup". When you received your first bill by physical mail, on the top right corner you will see your account number, client number. You will need these information to access the lookup option for your utility account. You will enter your Account number, Client Number, Last name, postal code, and your last method of payment.

If you want to sign up for e billing, so you won't have to receive your bill by physical mail, you can do so here at "Toronto Property Tax and Utility E-Billing". You will actually need to have signed up for Epost account already or you can access Epost account through your financial bank online account.

Once you know how much you have to pay the City of Toronto, you will pay them through your bank online account such as TD Bank, BMO bank, RBC bank, CIBC bank, Scotia bank, just to name a few. Log in to your bank account online and cick on "Pay bills". Then look for " Add Payee". Type in "Toronto (City Of) Utility Bill" for Canadian Payee. For account number, type in your "Toronto Utility Bill account number and client number combined together". That is all you need to add the payee into your bank account for future payments as well.

To make a payment now, you will click on "Pay bills", "Select Payee" as "Toronto (City Of) Utility Bill", the Amount to pay, and from which bank account to use.

Please be advised that your payment will not immediately reflect on your Toronto Utility account lookup details. It will be several business days before the payment amount will be shown and reflected in the online utility account lookup. So don't panic and start calling the city about why the payment hasn't gone through. Be sure to enter the correct account and client information as shown in your first physical paper mail utility bill.

If you look closely at your Toronto Utilities bill, you will see that there is one option provided by the city in regards to payment amount. It says that if you pay the bill by such and such date, you get a discount of such and such amount called an early discount. But if you decided to make payment after the specified discount date, then you would pay the actual regular price. I usually like to pay early so I could get a discounted price to pay, I mean we have to eventually pay the bills anyhow, sooner or later. So, why not pay them sooner?